The Central Appalachian Network (CAN) is a peer network that develops and deploys strategies to support a more just and sustainable Appalachia. The network has worked for over a decade to develop and strengthen local food value chains – short supply chains infused with the triple bottom line values of promoting financial, social, and environmental goals. In five sub-regions throughout Central Appalachia, more than 40 CAN members and local partners connect producers to markets, share marketing and training tools, coordinate policy work, and facilitate collaboration among producers, processors, aggregators, distributors, farmers markets, wholesale buyers, and consumers. The Central Appalachian Network also partners with the Appalachia Funders Network to co-host a regional Food and Agriculture Systems Working Group, in which funders and practitioners coordinate and align to build the sector as an economic driver and ensure access to fresh food for low-income communities. Over its first ten years of food system work, CAN documented an 800 percent increase in wholesale purchases, a nearly 500 percent increase in producer revenue to over $21 million annually, and the doubling of production employment to nearly 1,500 full-time equivalent jobs in 2018. The Central Appalachian Network has since expanded to focus this network approach on other sectors and strategies.

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